[US] Meta employees fired for spending food allowances on personal items

A source close to Meta has confirmed the firing of around two dozen employees from its Los Angeles office for misusing company meal credits for personal shopping purchases such as wine glasses, washing powder and acne treatment pads, CNN reports.

Many of Facebook parent company Meta’s corporate offices have elaborate on-site food as an employee perk. The cafeteria at Meta’s two-year-old office near Penn Station in NYC is designed to resemble an upscale food court and offerings at its various stalls are all free to staff members.

Employees at smaller offices without food services are reportedly provided with meal vouchers; $20 for breakfast and $25 each for lunch and dinner; to allow them to have food delivered to the office during their working day.

These meal vouchers are intended to fund employees' food while they are in the office for the potentially long hours infamous in the tech world that can extend through several daily meals.

According to CNN’s source, an internal investigation found that some LA-based employees used the meal funds to purchase things besides food or had meals delivered to their homes.

Meta’s median total annual compensation for individual employees (other than CEO Mark Zuckerberg) is $379,050, the company said in a regulatory filing earlier this year.

The firings, which took place in early October, were first reported by the Financial Times. News of them follows Meta’s October 17 admission that it was laying off people across the company as part of a series of separate restructurings.

“Today, a few teams at Meta are making changes to ensure resources are aligned with their long-term strategic goals and location strategy,” Meta spokesperson Tracy Clayton said in a statement. “This includes moving some teams to different locations, and moving some employees to different roles. In situations like this when a role is eliminated, we work hard to find other opportunities for impacted employees.”

Cuts were made across Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook and Reality Labs, home of Meta’s virtual reality and metaverse attempts. Meta would not disclose how many employees were laid off.

Among the employees to be let go was prominent security researcher Jane Manchun Wong. Ms Wong reportedly gained recognition in the tech world for predicting new social media features such as a Facebook resume feature and a tool on Twitter allowing users to hide tweet replies. She was subsequently hired by Meta, in June 2023, to work on the Instagram and Threads team.

Source: CNN

(Links and quote via original reporting)

A source close to Meta has confirmed the firing of around two dozen employees from its Los Angeles office for misusing company meal credits for personal shopping purchases such as wine glasses, washing powder and acne treatment pads, CNN reports.

Many of Facebook parent company Meta’s corporate offices have elaborate on-site food as an employee perk. The cafeteria at Meta’s two-year-old office near Penn Station in NYC is designed to resemble an upscale food court and offerings at its various stalls are all free to staff members.

Employees at smaller offices without food services are reportedly provided with meal vouchers; $20 for breakfast and $25 each for lunch and dinner; to allow them to have food delivered to the office during their working day.

These meal vouchers are intended to fund employees' food while they are in the office for the potentially long hours infamous in the tech world that can extend through several daily meals.

According to CNN’s source, an internal investigation found that some LA-based employees used the meal funds to purchase things besides food or had meals delivered to their homes.

Meta’s median total annual compensation for individual employees (other than CEO Mark Zuckerberg) is $379,050, the company said in a regulatory filing earlier this year.

The firings, which took place in early October, were first reported by the Financial Times. News of them follows Meta’s October 17 admission that it was laying off people across the company as part of a series of separate restructurings.

“Today, a few teams at Meta are making changes to ensure resources are aligned with their long-term strategic goals and location strategy,” Meta spokesperson Tracy Clayton said in a statement. “This includes moving some teams to different locations, and moving some employees to different roles. In situations like this when a role is eliminated, we work hard to find other opportunities for impacted employees.”

Cuts were made across Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook and Reality Labs, home of Meta’s virtual reality and metaverse attempts. Meta would not disclose how many employees were laid off.

Among the employees to be let go was prominent security researcher Jane Manchun Wong. Ms Wong reportedly gained recognition in the tech world for predicting new social media features such as a Facebook resume feature and a tool on Twitter allowing users to hide tweet replies. She was subsequently hired by Meta, in June 2023, to work on the Instagram and Threads team.

Source: CNN

(Links and quote via original reporting)